Karen Armitage, M.D.

Karen Armitage is a pediatrician and public health physician. She has been engaged in training medical residents in the New Mexico state legislative process and essential public health roles of physicians for over 30 years. Prior to her service as NMPS president, she served as Interim Dean and Associate Clinical Professor at University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Population Health (COPH). As COPH Director of Health Policy and Clinical MPH Concentrations, she adapted MPH curricula to serve clinicians seeking an MPH degree. Prior to her appointment at UNM, Armitage was selected as a RWJF Health Policy Fellow in 2014-15 and served on the Health Team in the Office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Prior to her fellowship, Armitage was chief medical officer for the New Mexico Department of Health. Earlier, as a regional health officer, she managed outbreaks and emerging infections, and provided community health planning, assessment, and direct clinical services. Following 9/11, she was trained at the U.S. Department of Defense in risk communication and message mapping, and then trained health department staff and community partners statewide.

Armitage is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and co-chairs the legislative and health advocacy subcommittee of the New Mexico Pediatric Society. She is a member of the New Mexico chapter of the American Medical Association and the New Mexico Chapter of the American Public Health Association. She is a Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow and was a National Public Health Leadership Institute Scholar from 2004 to 2005.

Armitage graduated with honors with a BA in biology and then earned an MD from the University of California, San Diego. She completed a pediatric residency and a postdoctoral fellowship in child health promotion at the University of New Mexico.